2013-03-27 - Family Affairs: The Egg Heads
All the information is gathered, and Stark, is at a lost for words. A week he studied it, and he is really no closer to the answers. He needed help. And so he calls Dr. Hank McCoy for his knowledge on mutant genetics, and also Kara Zor-El as he was informed Kryptonians were highly intelligent individuals. He's desperate. So he reluctantly opens his lap to Supergirl - which makes him insanely nervous - and to Beast - whom he is actually surprisingly fine with - to try and find the answer. "Dr. Sara Bellasarious is Asia's biological mother. She has been genetically altering and artifically activated Asia and her sibling's X-Gene over a decade ago. Right now, Asia in a youtube clipping is showing new mutations," and with a tap of a control panel on the central lab table a holographic emitter shows the youtube video of Asia looking like a big tree. "I suspect she may be adding further alterations. I'm concerned about Asia's and her sibling's stability. Though we are still trying to find them, once we do...we may have our hands very much full," he advises everyone. He then hands PDAs to both Hank and Kara for ease of review of the information. "Here is the complete data, though I did write a file on the main highlights." One may notice there is no wireless connection on those PDAs, it was removed. "Dr. Bella is currently rogue from HYDRA and AIM, and I suspect we aren't the only ones looking for her or her children. Furthermore, her children appear to have been conditioned to be obedient to their 'mother', so breaking that condition will also be very important." On the Clip, Asia is a Monster, about seven feet tall, long branches, her long dread locks are more like sharp thorns and knives, her claws are huge, she is agile though, quick, she beat down gaurds with no problem to get to her target in Japan. The other one with, the figured dressed in black as the records will show as codename Europe, has the power of decay, turning metal to rust so they can punch through, the Plant monster and the Death Dealer make a good team. Kara Zor-El is sitting in the air looking at the PDA. She looks at the 7 foot asia monster, then raises her hand and points to the PDA. "What...the...heck?" Beast watches the video and he has a pained look on his face. Though if its from his own condition or watching Asia run amok. He clicks his tongue and raises his glasses rubbing the bridge of his nose, "Indeed, quite the quandary." He sighs, "She looks more like Man Thing or Swamp Thing than Asia. If the urban legends are true." He sighs, "To quickly undo the conditioning would require a talented and powerful telepath. Though Asia's dual nature, that's always been hard. Somebody who could talk to plants possibly?" "You see the point. There is information and details on their genetic manipulation, how their powers worked a few years ago, training videos, all sorts of stuff. It's...pretty inhumane. She's...really something that doctor, pity it's an evil bitch something," Stark half growls at the end. "In either case, I cannot figure out why after all these years, what was her purpose? She could have always just restarted, why search for her scattered kids now?" He shakes his head, "The core motivation, I can't find it. It isn't love. She once cared for her children in a...way, but it was twisted and self-serving. That means, she took them back for a reason...perhaps to prove something, but what? And why kidnap that scientist?" Stark is raving a bit right now. But something Hank says catches his attention, "No one is registered with the ability mutant wise, I've looked before for someone to try and mentor or open Asia's mind to be able to learn how to read and write. I even spent hours upon hours coding her video games to teach her...to no avail. I love her...but academica wise, she's a complete moron." Which is of course...frustrating for Stark, not that he loves her any less. He flops onto a stool, looking at his own PDA and copy of the data. "It's like...there should be a key in her genetic structure. She was labeled not as Plant, but as Life, and the bitchy doctor," he has to fit that in as many times as possible, "called her plant abilities an unexpected side-effect. Then there is air, and earth, and death...anyway, you get the point." He waves one hand vaguely and dismissively. The Image switches to the kidnapped scientist, with the text data on Dr. Fujiyama and his creditentals, he's a therotical scientist, focused on pure energy research and has develed into alternate dimension research. Once coveted by both AIM and SHIELD the rumor is that he turned them down both. Or turned them down both with the help of the Criminal 'The Silver Samuari'. The Doctor though while way out there in his reserach is respected in his field and among his collegues, doesn't seem to have any criminal connection outside of the rumors of AIM trying to recuit him and the interference by The Silver Saumari, both are just rumors. Kara Zor-El frowns a bit looking at the video again. She'll never get why, when people use genetic manipulation, most races almost invariably use it to for less than reputable means. Especially on Earth. It's why she's been advised by Dedrick and even Batman not to talk too much about how Krypton used eugenics for hundreds of years. Blonde haired blue eyed girl talking about the positive aspects of eugenics? Yeah that wouldnt look good at all. Kara looks down at the PDA, then at Tony. "Is there any idea where she is now? With that black energy field thing they have in so many places, it's nearly impossible to find her. Too bad there isnt some way to like... pick up on mutants planetwide." She pauses and looks over at Beast. "There's not like some way to do that, right?" "If there was, it still use either sensors or telepathy, which are again, both blocked by the black energy field. To disrupt it, you would need a specific frequency wave." But Stark then shrugs, "In either case, nothing really came up on the scientist. Some rumors he was trying to be recruited by AIM and S.H.I.E.L.D. when researching alternative dimension research, supposedly hired The Silver Samuari, a mercenary from Japan to keep him independent. It's all just rumors, he's actually highly respected and has good references." Stark then raises a hand to rub the back of his neck. "I'm a wiz with biology and adaption of it to technology, but genetic manipulation...I've been in a crash course since I got ahold of this stuff. Honestly, I'm scared shitless, cause trying to alter Asia's and her siblings genetics...I'm afraid I'll screw up, but I got a feeling some reverses or alterations may need to be done." Which is ironic since he helped alter himself with nano-technology, but not to such an extreme at...Asia has been altered and the others. It really is a confidence thing most likely, but who knows. Beast sits there soaking this all in. He considers for a moment. He though smiles to Kara when Tony answers for him. He wasn't going to give up all his secrets. "Uhm... Tony are we going about this wrong? We're looking for a way to pierce this black energy field. That fields got to be pretty unique. Should we just be looking for that field?" "Well, possible, except it's meant to be immune to sensors. Contact also absorbs life force, sorta like Red Omega does." Stark moves to stand up, and goes to a computer screen. He pulls up the spects for it. "In either case, the shielding could be a tie between her different facility resources. She also has teleportation technology that is...unexpected, and potentially unstable." It's AIM tech, it always has a habit of blowing up or breaking down. More keys are tapped and the information and energy scans from the teleportation technology come up. "Trying to scan the entire world though for these two signatures? Difficult as hell thank you very much," his tone grumpy. But he then asks, "Why don't you two take a bit to review the genetic data and let me know if you have any insight?" Stark's dark eyes are actually desperate. He doesn't want to find Asia, only to lose her again. As the material is researched on the PDA, there is America for Air, Europe for Decay or Death, Australia for Fire, Africa for Earth, Antarctia for Water, and Asia for Life. Kara Zor-El looks over at Beast. "There are several hundred fields around the planet that I've seen from space, and that's just from one sweepover. Not to mention if we attack one of them it'll probably alert them then they'll just move to somewhere else and we'll be no closer." Beast shrugs, "Maybe we need to visit the site and see if there's an energy signature that we can trace. Find a way to cut down the aspect. Not miss the trees cause of the forest so to say." He grins, "If it's absorbing all energy wouldn't it be playing havoc with the weather or throwing off the shift of the Earth. He grins. "Oh and I remember this guy. This professor, alternative energy sources his bag baby. To be honest, He's one Reed Richards short of being Dr. Doom." Stark scratches the back of his head, "Alright, while I try to magically come up with which way to tell which out of severy hunred it is, why don't you look over the genetic data for a potential to stablize it? Supergirl," and he brings up a map of the world on one screen, he has lots of them in this place, "Why don't you punch in the locations of said several thousand locations. I'm sure what ones we don't get to, S.H.I.E.L.D. would love to in the near future." Especially since Stark has a way to bypass them now. "Well, if you can remember them, then you can review the data too." Is he hoping for too much from Supergirl? Stark isn't sure, he is listening to other people's advice. Toward Hank, Stark adds, "He sounds like a lovely individual," the sarcasm evident. "Maybe they secretly dated in the past, and he's the daddy." Kara Zor-El nods. "Okay, one second I can punch in the locations..." She heads over to the keyboard and starts typing into it. Pretty soon her hands are pretty much a blur. Then she stops and waits for the computer to catch up to what she's typing in. Once the computer catches up to the data being inputted, she finishes typing in the rest of it. "Okay... there you go." She's really impressed with it actually. Clark usually has to stop a lot more than twice when he does stuff like that on computers, or he'd always be typing 50,000 words a minute for his articles. She looks over at Tony while the computer again catches up to popping up the several thousand locations Kara inputted into there. "That's all the ones I saw during one sweep-over around the planet. But I wouldnt guarantee that there arent more. They could have had some in locations with lead, or maybe other methods of hiding from surveillance." Beast shrugs his shoulders, "Maybe he is. Though there are more than one way to take that? The project that produced Asia could be a co-colabration. Has any of the Sibilings shown abilites or signatures that could be tied into part of the nut jobs work?" He says as he goes over Asia's DNA mapping again. He's looking for a solution to jump start Asia's ability to learn and move past programing. "Alright, that's impressive. Ever tried being a secretary? Pepper would loooove you." But then back to work. Stark also makes a mental note, lead apparently interferes with a Kryptonian's sight. "Then again, if I tired to get her to hire you, she might accidently think I was trying to get her into a lesbien relationship...again. I haven't even tried the first time!" He rolls his eyes at that. But he then moves to save the data, before he sits down and starts to hack...no seriously, he starts to hack. What is he hacking? Apparently, he is hacking some satallites and directing them over Latveria and searching the captial. "Two days....she be waiting in the captial, right?" He's talking to himself again. But he appears completely and utterly distracted as he lets the other two review the genetic data. There are thousands of black energy fields around the world on the map, though four of them have a particularly strong energy emission, like they're for larger facilities - in Wakanda, Death Valley, a location konwn informally as the Savage Land, and Metropolis of all places. Beast turns to look at what Tony's doing. He stops and raises an eyebrow, "If you could have that do a tight shot of Doom and track him where he goes. Then contact Ryan Seacrest, I think you might have something to replace Real Housewives of Gotham." He pulls out the infamous ipad. He punches a few buttons on it. Then it starts a holographic projection of Asia's DNA on the Ipad. Thank you Forge and Shi'ar tech. Steve Job's Hank keeps abusing your user agreements and warrenties. Hank makes a hmmm sound, "I might be able to find a way to track them once they're outside the black fields. And what does Doom, the city of tomorrow, Black Panther's country and dinosaurs have to do with all of this?" Stark pulls up a facial recognition program and starts feeding the images of people in the street the satallite is catching in it slow scan for any hits. The programming Stark has at his disposal, would make any government $^#* itself, while being terrified and envious. Then, Stark slides his stool seat across to another computer screen and starts using other satallites to start scanning where the energy signatures were, getting geographic data before saying, "I'll have some unmanned planes go over those spots with sensors and start narrowing it down. I think I have some favors I can call in too to spread it out," he is thinking Warmachine, S.H.I.E.L.D. and King T'Challa. He starts sending them e-mails with the attached information of what he needs from them and why. He is mentally calling up some help at Stark Enterprises to handle the sensors on the unmanned planes and sending them out to areas in this side of the U.S. Stark pauses and stares at the iPad. He then smirks, before turning back toward the computer screen. He so did not wirelessly access that! Oh, he did, he did! Shame on him! Beast looks at Asia's original DNA. Then he starts to look at the modified DNA. He brings up a 2nd DNA strand and a picture of Asia, well their Asia. He starts to build the modified DNA out of Asia's original DNA and watch the holographic image of the girl begin to change into the Monster. He looks at Stark and frowns, "Can I help you? How possible is it that Asia is being paired with Europe for a reason beyond they are a good team. Could it be possible Asia's emitting a similar energy. The powers are uhm consuming each other?" Oh Stark with his computer mind. He would find a lot of stuff, shi'ar tech, stuff built by Forge, Hank's recipes book, a journal over Hank dying. But alot of it could possibly give Stark a headache as it's wacky and not exactly standard data. "I don't know," Stark says and shrugs. "Your guess is better than mine Hank. I don't know why some are elements and some aren't, I don't know why she started the project to begin with other than morbid curousity or even why HYDRA or its sub-division of AIM at the time would sponsor it. I didn't get some idealism of 'ideal being' or anything like that from her papers, just an obsession to control genetics. She doesn't have any real motherly feelings to my knowledge other than the essence of 'property' or 'what is mine cannot be yours', essentially ownership. I don't see any particularly way the powers could enteract other than one causing decay, and the other causing growth...actually, can Asia even make plants grow or just talk to them?" He mentally rechecks the data on her. Beast shrugs, "NOt that I can directly remember Tony. Other than herself. But I don't remember her being seven foot tall in the past." He shrugs, "I can develop this as a case study to see if it's a potential secondary mutation?" He shrugs his shoulders, "The problem is are we certain we're not seeing the real Asia? It's possible excuse the pun. She could be a plant. I mean she was a spy unit for AIM at one time." He shivers at that thought and hopes it's not true. "Well, can you reverse a secondary mutation?" Stark then turns back to the screen, "In either case, we need to highjack a Dr. Doom bot and then distract Dr. Doom. Apparently in two days, the 'good doctor'," sarcasm present, "has a meeting with him in the capital. I'll try and get more information on where and when other than 'two days', so we can better arrange the distraction and replacement. I doubt we are going to get a spy device in his property otherwise...but I'll keep my mind open for backup plans." Kara Zor-El is just looking back and forth as Stark and Beast talk about stuff that Kara has no idea about. She opens her mouth a few times to start to try to ask a question, then closes it when they keep on talking about more stuff and names and times she has no idea on. "Um... what do you mean 'two days from now'?" Beast checks his watch, "I would assume he means in 48 hours or two complete revolutions of the heavenly body that we reside upon and call the Earth." He says lookint at Stark with a smile, "Robots and Armors your thing." He grins, "We could call Reed and having him invent something to annoy Doom or I don't know have Johnny burn something in his front yard. You know Doom and how he is." He says with a grin. "I'll continue to work on this. He looks to Stark, "Stop or reverse? No. I can not. I wish I could." Kara Zor-El rubs her temples. "I mean what's happening two days from now." "Dr. Doom plus Evil Scientist, get together and plan evil things in Dr. Doom's home territory. We go, steal Dr. Doom bot...there are tons of them by the way, I think I may have one in storage. But anyway! We distract Dr. Doom so he forgets meeting, and send in Dr. Doom and...oh what the hell, you are blonde, but not one of my ex's." Stark just realized how he was talking to Kara, poor Kara. And wow, Stark had interesting taste before in lack of brain cells. "I still need to find out exactly when and where, but expected in two days time from now. We can perhaps find out what she is planning and kick Dr. Doom in the nuts while we are at it." Low attack Stark, low attack. He then points to the satallite reviews and the facial recognition program, "Just in case she is staying in the capital and not at a hidden lab somewhere, though likely she will just teleport in right before the meeting. Maybe I can send a spy plane over there to keep a sensor out for her teleportation signature?" He hrms thoughtfully. Stark doing it the hard way, go figure. It's all about the tech and money with him. "Oooohs, man, that would piss of Doom, sounds like fun Hank. Maybe we should add graffitti somewhere too." He's getting distracted again. But at Hank's last words, Stark's face crumbles, "You...can't? What about...if you had nano-technology?" It's Stark, he do anything for Asia. Kara Zor-El pauses and says, "Um... you know I could just do the same thing, right?" She mentions, "Super vision, super hearing... can see different energy signatures. Plus you know... I think the guy you're talking about has his own country and you might start a war using spy planes? I'm just saying because they didnt let me become a U.S. Citizen because they said if I was one, I'd cause wars for just that sort of reason." She then adds, "Plus I can do it from space." Beast nods, "A meeting of Asia's mommy and Dr. Doom are meeting." Hank shakes his head, "Maybe Tony Maybe. Though in the cases I've studied. It would require a pure resequancing of the DNA to something else. We just don't understand the x-gene or the nano tech both to try something like that. We could possibly create a virus that kills Mutants only or we could create a mutant 'cure' as a viral weapon. But case, we turn Asia into a real girl but no powers. Worse case is her death." He looks back to the others. "I'm going to my lab to try some stuff. Tony, You know how to contact me." With that Hank heads for the door. "Wait, you can hear, in space?" Mind boggling! Kryptonian powers are amazing! Wait a second, "Wait a second, you can save me hundred of thousand dollars and be my personal spy toy?" Another pause. He then curses at Hank's words, "Shit! I...shouldn't have ignored the mutant gene research. I just thought...others to do it, I have my own /things/ to do." A pause, then he looks at Hank, "Sorry," his tone actually apologetic. "I sometimes forget what a selfish self-centered bastard I can be." He pinches the bridge of his nose. But he then nods at Kara. "Alright, let's keep in contact. You have a way I can reach you immediately? We can correspond to work this out, and considering how fast you can type, I think you can transcribe the conversation verbena with ease." Stark then remembers to face plant as Hank starts to close the lab door, "I'll contact you!" Right...short attention span? Understatement. Kara Zor-El nods. "I know what you're going to say. That sound can't be heard in space, which is technically true. But actually the Earth is constantly giving off all sorts of sound waves and other energy signatures that you can't actually hear but I can. Including from voices." She then adds, "Plus I can read lips and see the vibrations from your larynx and vocal chords anyway." She watches as Beast goes to leave. "Wait what? There are viruses that specifically attack mutants or get rid of mutant powerS? Really?" That doesnt sound good at all. Back to Stark, "Oh yeah um... I have a phone. 999-787-7475. Or you know... you can just call my name. Super hearing..." She points to her ear. 999-SUPRGRL "Supergirl, you are honestly and truly terrifying, and I hope you never turn evil, let alone mastermind evil." Stark mentally records the number. "No, don't listen for that, I might just be enjoying a private fantasy and that just be embarassing, well...it wouldn't be if you were legal. Are you legal?" He then grins wickedly at that. But he then walks over and starts pulling up some records on something, downloads it to a thumb drive, then tosses it over to Kara. "It's a drug extract from mutants, that when injected into a human can give them temporary powers. Very dangerous drug actually on the black market, and luckily not common. And considering you can create a virus to attack a specific part of the body from antibodies to more, then why can't you create one to just attack mutants or just attack meta-humans, or even just attack Kryptonians? It's entirely possible, the point is, luckily there are few people intelligent enough to pull it off. The few I know off the top of my head that can are on the good guys side thankfully." He doesn't state who. "You should really broaden your horizons kiddo." She catches the flash drive when tossed to her. "Legal? Um... okay that depends on what you mean by legal. Like I said, I'm not really an american citizen." Wrong type of 'legal' Kara. She shakes her head again then looks at the thumb drive, then back at Kara. "Actually yeah I guess I could make something that oculd turn off the gene for mutants or meta-humans, technically speaking. I honestly never thought of doing something like that, though. I know my cousin once had to do something to remove a part of someone's brain with his heat vision that gave psychic powers but he had detailed schematics of which part of the brain to target so he didnt lobotomize him." She pauses. "Okay. I admit that DOES sound a little terrifying, actually." She then says "With Kryptonians it's not from our genes though. I mean.... it's not a single gene - it's just how our bodies work. There's a lot of genetic conditioning but the powers come from solar radiation absorption, not genetics - strictly speaking. It's a .... I guess the best term is a bio-matrix." "Beyond terrifying, thanks Supergirl. Like I wasn't paranoid enough." Stark rolls his eyes at that. "All you got to do when studying Kryptonian DNA, is merley find a way for their body to absorb solar radiation right? Block that...no more super powers, right?" Yes, Kara is spilling too much. "Alright, I'm paranoid, but you also give very useful information, so I guess it's an even exchange." Stark moves to flop back on his stool and glances back at his computer working, before looking back toward Supergirl. "Anyway, it's all theory. All theories are possible in...theory. It's just drive, dedication, education, and intelligence. Oh, and sometimes ethics or the lack there-of play a part. But still, I hope they never do it. I can understand finding a so-called 'cure'...some people just hate themselves, or their mutations are very severe. It's like changing your hair color. To me, genetics is just like a fingerprint, it is not naturally bad or good, it's all in what you do with them. But I'm not the one that is going to travel that path or open that can of worms." Kara Zor-El shrugs a little. "Little more complicated than that but sorta, yeah." She doesn't actually explain about red solar radiation or that kryptonians store yellow sunlight, but still it's nothing others like Lex Luthor or Batman don't already know. "You know, I havent exactly had a lot of good luck with some mutants, Dr McCoy notwithstanding. Theres this one guy, Alex. He positively hates me. And another named Pete who also is all scared of me even though he's going out with my ... er... sister sorta." Not going to try to explain Power Girl and Supergirl's relationship. Kara Zor-El nods to herself. "Make a virus that shuts off mutant powers. That'll make me very popular with the mutants." "Oh yes, try to make nice with the super spy. Ya...good luck with Pete," sounding vaguely amused. "Alex, I haven't met or worked with, or know who that is...but if you mean Pete Wisdom, dating Power Girl? Or was...little iffy about that. Anyway, ya, he's as bad if not worse than me with paranoia. I just have a short skirt fetish," and Stark eyes it. But he then waves a hand at Supergirl, "Alright, out of here already. I got a report to write up, and I'll contact you when I have more information on the base search and the meeting." Kara Zor-El smirks a little smile at that short skirt comment. "Okay Mr Stark. I'll let you konw what happens with this..." she motions at the thumb drive before heading to the window. "Oh by the way, technically Pete isnt going out with Power Girl anymore. They broke up and she's sort of with Huntress now." Then flies out.